Family Ties
by beaglelvr93
Summary: The sequel to 'No One Cares'. Booth is back, and he has a case with Brennan. What do Sly and Max Keenan have to do with a foster kid found alive at the crime scene? Can the new 'minisquint' help solve the case? Will Bren take Booth back? Who is Storm?
1. Booth!

Here it is! The sequel to 'No One Cares'. I wanted to get this up – but please don't beg for regular updates. I'm still working on my 'ABCs' fic, and I have yet to finish 'The Company'. This is just a tease. . .

Thank you to all who are reading. Enjoy!

(---------------------------)

Temperance Brennan was on the platform at the Jeffersonian Institute working on identifying some WWII bones. Her assistant, Zack Addy, was examining a skull for her and the team's entomologist, Jack Hodgins, was looking at particulates from the victim's clothes. Angela Montenegro, who got the job as a Forensic Artist, was sitting off to the side sketching the team. A dog was curled up under Angela's chair, snoozing contentedly.

Angela watched as Brennan looked at the skeleton without really seeing it. Brennan shook her head in an attempt to focus.

_What is wrong with me? _She thought, trying to get rid of the buzzing sound in her ears. _Why do I feel all. . . tingly? The only other time I've felt like this is when I was with B-_

Her thoughts were interupted by the glass doors to the lab squeaking horribly. _I have to remember to ask the janitor to fix that._

A man walked in, head down as he examined a piece of paper. He was dressed in a crisp suit with his FBI badge stuck in the waistband of his pants. Brennan swore her heart stopped, but why she wasn't sure. Before she had a chance to blink, a blur shot from under Angela's chair and bolted towards the man. Brennan's eyes widened.

"Navy! No!" She yelled, heading off the platform after her dog. Navy ignored her and continued to the man, jumping into his arms when he looked up at the last second. The man dropped the piece of paper he was holding and caught the boarder collie sized mutt. He put her on the ground just before Brennan launched herself into his arms.

"Bones?" He asked in disbelief, stumbling backwards from her weight. He tripped, sending them both sprawling.

"Booth!" Brennan exclaimed, hugging him tighter.

"Bones. . . what are you doing here?" Booth asked, pushing back on her shoulders so that he could look at her face. "Jesus, it is you."

"Who else would it be, silly?" She teased, smiling widely.

Booth stuttered. "I . . . I just never expected to see you again." A look of confusion passed over his face. "Where's Angel? Who is Navy?"

Angela, who had followed Brennan off the platform in a daze, piped up.

"Her name is Navy because Seeley didn't fit and Seel sounded dumb, so we named her Navy Seal. I'm Angela." She said, holding out her hand to Booth, who was still sprawled on the ground with Tempe half on top of him.

"Angel was killed at a crime scene three years ago. She was shot by the man who turned out to be the killer. They stuck me with a stupid rookie who didn't even secure the scene."

"I'm sorry, Bones." He said, shaking Angela's hand before turning and raising an eyebrow at a blushing Brennan.

"You were going to name your dog Seeley?" He asked teasingly.

"Shut up, Booth." She retorted, thrown slightly at his sudden change in mood.

"Booth?!" Anglea said suddenly, a look of recognition on her face. "YOU'RE Seeley Booth?!" He nodded, pulling Brennan to her feet. Angela slapped Bren lightly on the shoulder.

"You evil little. . . you never told me!" The artist shrieked.

"Told you what, Ange?" Hodgins asked from behind her where he and Zack were looking on.

"That this BOOTH she's always talking about is a genuine FBI studmuffin!"

Brennan blushed and sent an apologetic glance at Booth, who had his hands tucked in his back pockets, grinning at her. She seemed to just remember where they were, and she remembered her manners.

"Everyone, this is Seeley Booth. Booth, that's Jack Hodgins, our entomologist." She pointed to Jack who waved before returning to the bug he was looking at. "Zack Addy is my assistant anthropologist and you already met Angela, our forensic artist." Brennan introduced.

"Nice to meet you all." Booth said before turning back to Tempe. "Wanna go get some lunch?"

"Sure. . . but why are you here? Not that I'm not thrilled to see you. . ." She added quickly as Booth bent to pick up his dropped piece of paper.

"I got to the office and my boss told me that I was the new liasion between us and the Jeffersonian. He told me to come over here and introduce myself. I had no idea that you were here." He explained. After a pause, he added. "So who wants pie?" Brennan rolled her eyes.

"Is food still all you think about?"

"No, I'm just hungry. Pleaseeeee Bones??" He begged, putting on his puppy dog eyes.

"That smile doesn't work on me, Seeley Booth!" She said, pretending to be angry. When he continued to pout, she grabbed his arm and pulled him back out the lab doors.

"Ange, we're going to lunch!" She yelled over her shoulder, whistling for Navy who came running after them.

Angela smiled, turning back to her drawing. It was the first time in a long time that she had seen Temperance Brennan truly smile.


	2. This pie is amazing

Thanks to _spacekid77 _for typing the majority of this!

--

"So what do you really want?"

"So what do you _really_ want?" Brennan asked, sipping her coffee with a smile as they sat in a booth at her favorite 'Royal Diner'.

"I thought we went over this. I'm your partner," Booth replied as he ate his pie hungrily. "And this pie, by the way," he pointed to it with his fork, "is amazing."

"I thought you'd like it." Her smile faded. "Seriously Booth, why are you back? I… I looked everywhere. I checked the FBI databases, schools –"

"I bet you didn't check military."

Brennan's fork clattered to her plate. "You went into the military?"

"Yeah," he mumbled. "I got your letter… and you were gone – I didn't know what to do."

"What branch?"

"Army. The Rangers."

"Rangers lead the way," Brennan murmured to herself.

"I thought it was the right thing to do… I didn't know if you'd ever come back, or if you were ok, or if-" Booth trailed off when he finally glanced up at his partner.

Her eyes had slid shut and she had started shaking. "Bones?" She continued to shake and her face scrunched up in concentration. Booth got up and slid into the booth next to her. He placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Temperance." At her given name, her eyes snapped open and she gasped. She jumped up and tried to move past him to get to the door.

"Booth, come on! We have to go!"

"Where?" he asked, confused.

"Come _on_!! I can't explain right now, just get in the car!" She was halfway out the door before he caught up with her.

"Whoa, whoa, hold it Bones," he said, catching her arm as she reached to open the door to his truck. "What's going on?"

"There's a body, Booth. Bones… it's what I do."

"Where? And how do you know?"

"I just know. If you're not in that car in _five_ seconds, I'm going to kick your ass and then drive myself!" Taking the hint, Booth walked around the car and climbed into the driver's seat.

"Where are we going?" he asked for the third time.

"Out of the city. To a housing development called 'Happy Hollow'," she informed him before turning to stare out the window.

Booth pulled out of the parking lot with a chuckle.

"Very funny, Tempe. You had me there for a while."

She turned to look at him, her face dead serious. "Had you where?"

"You were always nosy, Bones. I _know_ you looked at the file. It was sitting right on the dashboard on the way over here."

"Seeley, I swear I didn't look." Startled by her use of his first name, Booth looked over at her. He could tell by the look on her face that she wasn't lying.

"Then how the hell do you know the address of our case?"

She shrugged, turning back to the window. Booth wasn't fooled. He knew what was happening. He was back for a day and his 'gut' was already rubbing off on her.

--

It was happening again. These visions that I got. . . they were hard to explain. Sometimes when I was working on a body I would get a flash of a face or of a person. They were kind of like flashbacks.

I was having one of those flashbacks. Except this one wasn't flashing _back. _

I saw a house and the glimpse of a sign that said 'Happy Hollow'. My vision zoomed into the house and I saw a body in the kitchen. A teenaged girl was standing next to the body. She looked me straight in the eye before whispering 'Help!' and scampering away.

"Temperance!" His voice jolted me out of my vision. I opened my eyes and found Booth hovering over me with his warm, concerned look. For some reason the vision had left me with a feeling of blind panic - I had to get to that house.

"Booth, come on! We have to go!" I said, trying to move past him. He asked me where we were going and I managed to squeeze by him and out of the booth. I was almost out the door before I looked back to see him still standing there.

"Come _on_!! I can't explain right now, just get in the car!" I said, trying to get him to move faster. It took some convincing, but he eventually started the car and headed for Happy Hollow, muttering about how I looked at the file.

Well I didn't. All I knew was that we had to get there, and fast. I turned my face to look out the window so he wouldn't see me trembling with the after-effects of the vision.


	3. I am the cavalry

Sorry for the wait! I hope this chap explains some things. And for anyone who's worried I'm turning supernatural – this is NOT an ESP fic. Enjoy! (p.s. Sorry for any errors. I never have a beta for my stories.)

--

"So how DID you know?" Booth asked as they got off the exit that would take them to Happy Hollow. Brennan sighted.

"Forensic Anthropologists have to travel abroad to help identify victims. I went to Guatemala to investigate a mass grave. I was captured and during my capture I started to have these visions – or at least that's what I thought they were.

"They were about different things, but mostly about the bodies I had worked on. I realized later that they were my mind's way of processing information- very, very fast. It takes events, facts, pictures, etc. and analyzes them so fast that I black out for a period of time.

"That's what happened at the diner – except this time it was different." She paused, a confused expression on her face. "Instead of flashing _back, _it seemed to flash forward.There is a girl at the house, alive. I've seen her before but I can't place where."

All of a sudden, a look of recognition came over her faces. "The address of the case IS on the file! It's always written on the front! I must have seen it out of the corner of my eye, and then my mind pieced that together with the girl, where ever I know her from. . ."

Booth had remained silent through her speech. His expression was thoughtful.

"So you're not ESP?" He asked.

"No."

"Cool. We're here." He parked next to the simple house and they both got out, heading over to where a group of 10 or so cops stood huddled in a circle. Booth flashed his badge as they approached across the dying grass.

"FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth and Dr. Temperance Brennan." He introduced. "We need to get inside."

"Woah, hold it Fed. We're waiting for the cavalry to get here." Booth stepped closer to the shorter man and glared at him.

"I _am _the cavalry. We're going in and clearing it out so that Bones can do her thing."

"I'm coming too." Brennan argued.

"No, you're not." Booth shot back.

"You don't know what you're looking for."

"You're not _trained _to clear out an unknown house, Bones."

"And YOU are not trained to examine human remains!" Booth rolled his eyes and grabbed the Kevlar vest that one of the cops was offering him. Strapping it on, he pulled out his gun and turned back to Brennan.

"Fine. But stay behind me." Brennan nodded and watched as the other cops started suiting up. Feeling left out, she poked Booth in the shoulder to get his attention.

"I want a gun."

"No." Booth replied as he checked that his gun was loaded.

"Why do you need that? The house is empty."

"You don't know that." Tempe raised an eyebrow at him. He read her expression perfectly. It said, 'I'm the one with visions, remember?'.

"Better safe than sorry." He said as the lead officer called them over.

"Ok men." Glancing at Brennan, the officer cleared his throat. "And women." This earned a laugh from a couple of the rookies and a glare from Booth. "We go in, clear the place out, and then Dr. Brennan will enter."

"I'm coming with you." Brennan spoke up stubbornly.

"Don't worry, she'll be behind me." Booth reassured the man who looked doubtful.

"Alright, move out." The men started for the house, Booth and Brennan lagging behind. Someone kicked down the door and everyone spread out. Booth headed for the kitchen with Brennan right on his heels. The kitchen was anything but clear. A dead man lay on the kitchen table, his face smashed beyond repair. Brennan immediately went to the body as Booth went to the teenage girl that was curled in the corner, watching them warily.

"Are you ok?" He asked, approaching her.

"I'm fine, Booth." Brennan answered, not looking up. The girl chuckled.

"I believe he was talking to me, Dr. Brennan." Tempe whipped around.

The girl was about 14, with big brown eyes that bore a striking resemblance to Booth's puppy-dog beggers. Her hair, although matted, was auburn and a bit longer than her shoulders. She wore jeans and a thin tee- her arms were wrapped around herself from the cold. It was the girl from her vision.

"How...?"

Tempe wanted to ask how she got there, how she was in her vision. Instead she finished with '...do you know my name?"

"I've read your books." The girl said with a shrug. "And you have a name tag. . ." The girl pointed. Brennan looked down. Sure enough, there was a bright blue sicker on her shirt that said 'Hi! My name is Dr. Brennan'. She groaned as Booth laughed.

"I was giving a tour this morning, ok Booth?" Growing serious, Booth turned to talk to the girl, but she was gone.

"Where'd she go?!" He asked, outraged. "She can't be that fast!"

"Booth, just get a team in here to bag this guy, we'll deal with her later." She had a feeling that the girl would show up again soon. She wouldn't hang around a crime scene for nothing.

As Brennan turned back to the body, Booth was still trying to figure out how the girl got away so fast. One thought was sticking in his head – _Boy, that girl sure looked a lot like Bones._

As Booth left to find someone to yell at, Brennan also thought about the girl. _She sure looked a lot like Booth._


End file.
